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Description
Scale plains are a biome found in the upper highlands on the edge of Isla's Terminator region. This environment is hostile due to its blasting winds, yet nourishing as it is highly exposed to sunlight and it's soil and air is rich in nutrients. This biome is defined by the great protruding trees (H. adotherium, approx. 3 meters tall) which shape the planet's surface as they grow, creating dynamic environments. Young trees pull the ground upward as they mature, making tall hills.

These trees are the keystone to each hill, holding the soil togeather while also nurturing the other organisms around them. To each tree's southern end, the trunk is tapered so as to cut through the wind, and casts a great permanent shadow behind it. Photosynthetic organisms cannot grow on the southern end of the hill due to this shadowing, opening up a niche for organisms which don't rely on light to survive, specifically chemosynthetic flora such as A. fetuli. Such flora have large lung-like structure that they extend upward, capturing nutrients from the air (organic and volcanic). These organisms can synthesize nutrients that the tree can't, so their roots grow down and merge with the long 'tails' of the tree. Here they can trade these nutrients with sugars produced by the tree.

The northern side of the hill is exposed to more light than the flat ground normally would be. Plates grow larger in this area, and due to the tree cutting the wind behind them and sheltering them, some are capable of throwing themselves into the air to further maximize their light exposure. This behavior results in the front section of the hill taking on the look of scales.

Questions and comments are welcome!

Im really happy to have finished this piece and I proud of how it turned out. I've been pretty inefficient with art for the past month or so but now I'm feel extremely motivated and my mind is bursting with ideas so I'll have more stuff soon. I plan on making more of these biome spotlights in the future, for I think they do a great job of illustrating the relationships between organisms.

Description
Scale plains are a biome found in the upper highlands on the edge of Isla's Terminator region. This environment is hostile due to its blasting winds, yet nourishing as it is highly exposed to sunlight and it's soil and air is rich in nutrients. This biome is defined by the great protruding trees (H. adotherium, approx. 3 meters tall) which shape the planet's surface as they grow, creating dynamic environments. Young trees pull the ground upward as they mature, making tall hills.

These trees are the keystone to each hill, holding the soil togeather while also nurturing the other organisms around them. To each tree's southern end, the trunk is tapered so as to cut through the wind, and casts a great permanent shadow behind it. Photosynthetic organisms cannot grow on the southern end of the hill due to this shadowing, opening up a niche for organisms which don't rely on light to survive, specifically chemosynthetic flora such as A. fetuli. Such flora have large lung-like structure that they extend upward, capturing nutrients from the air (organic and volcanic). These organisms can synthesize nutrients that the tree can't, so their roots grow down and merge with the long 'tails' of the tree. Here they can trade these nutrients with sugars produced by the tree.

The northern side of the hill is exposed to more light than the flat ground normally would be. Plates grow larger in this area, and due to the tree cutting the wind behind them and sheltering them, some are capable of throwing themselves into the air to further maximize their light exposure. This behavior results in the front section of the hill taking on the look of scales.

Questions and comments are welcome!

Im really happy to have finished this piece and I proud of how it turned out. I've been pretty inefficient with art for the past month or so but now I'm feel extremely motivated and my mind is bursting with ideas so I'll have more stuff soon. I plan on making more of these biome spotlights in the future, for I think they do a great job of illustrating the relationships between organisms.